


Apple Everything

by Reioka



Series: Girl Next Door [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Apple Appreciation, Autumn Appreciation, Gen, Halloween, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-21
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2018-01-02 06:41:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1053693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reioka/pseuds/Reioka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles was six and every season was his favorite season. Of course, if zombie alien dinosaurs were holding his parents hostage and the only way to save them was to pick one, he would probably lean toward autumn. Lots of stuff happened in autumn, and it had a funny ‘mn’ at the end instead of just one or the other. And if he had to pick a favorite month in autumn, well… it was definitely October.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apple Everything

**Author's Note:**

> I kind of just want Stiles and Scott to stay kids forever because OHMYGOSH they're so adorable I could eat them up!

 

Apple Everything

 

Stiles was six and every season was his favorite season. Of course, if zombie alien dinosaurs were holding his parents hostage and the only way to save them was to pick one, he would _probably_ lean toward autumn. Lots of stuff happened in autumn, and it had a funny ‘mn’ at the end instead of just one or the other. And if he had to pick a favorite month in autumn, well… it was definitely October.

 

The first weekend in October, Addie and Mrs. Anderson took him and Scott to the apple orchard and they all picked bucket-loads of different colored apples, and then they’d go to the farmers’ market and pick up the last of the summer produce. Afterward, they’d go back to the Anderson house, where Stiles and Scott would tucker out on the rug in front of the fireplace, listening to Mr. Anderson’s jazz records (that were actually _records_ that played in a _record machine, wow!_ ).

 

While Scott and Stiles napped, Mrs. Anderson and Addie would put together a huge stew with big pieces of meat and the vegetables from the farmers’ market, and then start getting things ready to can. Stiles’s mom usually came to help around that time, pulling jars from the dishwasher and setting them up to hold all of Mrs. Anderson’s peaches and apricots and tomatoes. While they were canning, Addie mixed up a huge crock-pot of fresh apple cider, and it was always the smell of cider that woke them up and brought them nosing into the kitchen.

 

Sipping their hot cider, Scott and Stiles were then tasked with helping Addie make apple _everything._ She let them peel the apples for apple pie, roll out the crust, and dash the apples with lemon juice. She let them mix the ingredients for apple muffins and put the muffin liners into the muffin pan. She let them crumble up sugar cones for brown betty and mix the spices to put over the apples in another crock-pot for apple butter. She let them each mash a pan of applesauce that they got to take home.

 

Sometimes Stiles’s dad would get off work and would come over. He was allowed in the kitchen just long enough to grab a cup of coffee before he was shooed back out. Thus banished, he’d sit and talk with Grandpa Jim. Stiles and Scott would usually wander out for Man Talk, even though they couldn’t always follow along when they started talking about firearms. But Grandpa Jim would always let them look through his records when they got bored as long as they were super careful. Sometimes he’d even let them put a different record on.

 

Scott’s mom would show up just before dinner, looking harried and tired, but once they sat down for stew and thick bread, she relaxed and smiled more easily. It was nice to see her smile when she was usually so exhausted.

 

 

.-.-.-.

 

Scott got strep throat the day before Halloween. He was super bummed that he couldn’t go trick-or-treating, almost to the point that he cried.

Stiles grabbed his hand and quite seriously told him, “I’ll get candy for you, too.”

 

Scott smiled, but it didn’t really hold up when he started coughing and hacking. “Thanks, Stiles.”

 

Stiles shrugged. “You’d do the same for me, right?”

 

“Of course,” Scott told him with the same amount of gravity.

 

Claudia and Melissa wondered why they couldn’t be this serious about their homework. Times tables didn’t just learn themselves.

 

 

.-.-.-.

 

The thing was, Stiles’s mom got tired a lot recently. Sometimes she’d even take naps. So the plan was that she’d stay home and pass out candy and his dad would take him and Scott trick-or-treating. But he didn’t want to go _alone_. Kids who went trick-or-treating alone were _losers,_ and Stiles was _not_ a loser.

 

So, of course, he went over and asked Addie. “Addie, Scott’s sick. Will you go trick-or-treating with me?”

 

Addie blinked down at him, frowning, then sighed and rubbed one of her eyes under her glasses. “I thought I told you that I was invited to the Hale party.”

 

“Oh.” Stiles looked down at his feet. She _had_ told him that. She’d been excited, too. “I forgot.” He looked back up at her. “What are you going as?”

 

“Well.” She smiled a little and scratched her cheek. “I thought I might go as Wonder Woman.”

 

Stiles was excited by the prospect. “ _Cool!_ Wonder Woman’s so awesome! Not as awesome as Batman, but definitely awesomer than Superman! You gotta take pictures with me before you go!” He paused, then added, “Are you gonna bundle up? Mom says that we’re s’posed to get a cold front.”

 

“Well, I’d be in the house with everyone, so—” Then Addie stopped, and her face just fell like everything was suddenly ruined.

 

Stiles frowned and reached out to grab her hand, tugging on it in concern. “What’s wrong?”

 

“Those boys that pick on me will probably be at the party, too,” she muttered, then squatted and pulled him into a hug when he scowled. “If Laura Hale saw the way they made fun of me, she’d never let me live it down.”

 

“Friends don’t judge friends!” the younger boy declared firmly. “Unless it’s that TV show!”

 

Addie barked out a laugh and nuzzled the top of his head. “I’ll remember that, Sawyer.” She stroked his hair gently before she stood up, wincing as both of her knees popped. “Ow. Hey, you know how I dressed up as Hermione last year?”

 

Stiles tilted his head. “Yeah.”

 

“It’s much warmer than my Wonder Woman costume. I didn’t really want to go to the party, anyway; I was just excited to be invited. Would you mind if I dressed up as Hermione and came trick-or-treating with you? I’ll hold Scott’s bag.”

 

Stiles was raised to be a polite young man, so he shook his head. “You were really excited about the party.”

 

She knelt in front of him again, face grave. “I was actually really proud of that costume. I would be honored if you’d let me go trick-or-treating with you so I can show it off again.”

 

Well, she _had_ been super proud of the costume last year, Stiles had to admit. She almost hadn’t wanted to take it off. He still sometimes saw her wear the skirt she’d sewn herself with her everyday clothes. “Well, I guess you can, if you want.”

 

Addie’s smile was small but sweet. He liked those smiles almost as much as her big, bright ones. “Thanks, Stiles.” She stood up again and took his hand, leading him back over to his house, where she could see Ivan waiting in the window. “How about tomorrow, instead of going to your house, we’ll come back to mine after school and make some caramel apples and take some to Scott before we go trick-or-treating.”

 

Stiles grinned. The Andersons had always saved caramel apples and popcorn balls for the actual day of Halloween, so they didn’t go bad. Usually he and Scott were so busy getting ready for trick-or-treating that they had to miss it. “With sprinkles and a gummy worm?!”

 

Addie patted him on the head as the door to his house opened and Ivan readied himself to yank his chatty son inside. “I’ll go out and buy gummy worms tonight.”

 

 

.-.-.-.

 

Mrs. Anderson made popcorn balls the same way she did forty years ago. Even Claudia managed to sneak over for one before trick-or-treaters came, even though she was clearly tired. The caramel apples were special for the Stilinskis and McCalls, though, with sprinkles and gummy worms for Stiles and Scott and either nuts or crushed sandwich cookies for the adults. Addie preferred hers boring with only caramel.

 

Stiles was proudly decked in a Batman costume, holding a large pillowcase and offering up a second one as Addie opened the door. “Mom said we could use pillowcases this year instead of the plastic bags after our handles broke last year.”

 

“Cool, there’s room for more candy,” Addie answered, because she was awesome and noticed things like that. “Hi, Sheriff. Grandma made coffee for you.”

 

Ivan heaved a long-suffering sigh even as he took the thermos and raised a hand in thanks to Mrs. Anderson through the window. “This means we’ll be out for hours, I take it.”

 

“CANDY!” Addie and Stiles shouted, because Stiles was six and Halloween made Addie _feel_ like she was six.

 

 

.-.-.-.

 

Scott took his caramel apples and cried because he was glad they hadn’t forgotten him. When Stiles showed him the bag Addie would be carrying for him with the words 'I'm Scott and I'm sick' on it, he screamed with delight, coughed, and had an asthma attack. It was uncomfortable for everyone except him and Stiles.

 

“I mean, at least he was crying because he was happy?” Addie had offered, but Ivan Stilinski was always uncomfortable around tears (even his own), so he’d ushered them quickly to the next house to begin their candy accumulation.

 

He decided that maybe next year, Addie would be old enough to take Stiles and Scott trick-or-treating on her own, because Stiles never got tired when it came to collecting candy and apparently wherever Stiles went, Addie would follow no matter how tired she was. He was too young to be feeling this old, but they’d been walking for _two hours_ and he was ready to go home and go to bed.

 

Claudia would surely make fun of him if she heard him complaining, though, so he kept his thoughts to himself and eased his pain with Mrs. Anderson’s coffee. Which, how did she make such delicious coffee when she’d never had a drop _in her long life?!_

 

 

.-.-.-.

 

The thing about being the son of one of Beacon Hills’ finest, was that people tended not to mess with Stiles. Instead, they just ignored him or picked on Scott instead. He didn’t really understand why they thought picking on Scott would be better, considering that Stiles had learned that biting was a spectacular defense, and he already had some of his adult teeth.

 

Still, every so often, not-so-smart people would try to mess with him.

 

Stiles growled and pulled back his pillowcase. “Leggo! This is my candy!”

 

“Come on, twerp, just give it,” one of the boys sighed, sounding aggravated.

 

Addie screeched when they tried to take her own bag and hurried to pull Stiles behind her. “ _MR. STILINSKI!_ ”

 

“Can’t you stand up for yourself, you stupid bitch?” one of the other guys said, and Stiles gasped in outrage because he’d just called one of his best friends a _bad word._

 

Addie flushed and stuck her wand into her bag of candy. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size then, you jerk?!”

 

“Maybe I will!” he said, and grabbed her by the front of her shirt.

 

Stiles heard footsteps pounding toward them and turned, letting out a breath of relief when he saw his dad running toward them, looking furious. He was relieved for Addie, though, not because he was scared or anything. “What are you kids doing?!”

 

The boys scattered, jumping fences and running over lawns to get away. Ivan thought about going after them. If he could just catch one, the little coward would turn on his friends. But then Stiles was lifting his hands up, wanting to be held, and Addie picked up a rock from the side of the road and threw it after the slowest boy, nailing him in the back. It was a small rock, so it probably only stung, but he was glad for that small satisfaction when Stiles hid his face in his neck.

 

He rethought not chasing them when Addie turned around, blood dripping from a cut on her lip. He scowled. “Maddie, do you know those boys?”

 

Addie blinked up at him, looking a little dazed, but then her lips spread into a wide smile.

 

It was good that his dad had scared those boys off, Stiles decided when his dad finally set him down and he took his hand. Addie might have gotten really hurt.

 

 

.-.-.-.

 

_Later, Stiles learned that his dad was only **part** of the reason why those mean boys had run away. As soon as Addie had been slapped, she’d punched the boy holding her and broken his nose. His dad called Deputy Collins, and Deputy Collins had waited at the hospital for the boy to show up. The boy had quickly blubbered the names of his friends, and they’d gotten in trouble for stealing other kids’ candies, and the one that hit Addie was charged with assault._

_Later, Stiles realized that they were the same boys that harassed Addie all the time, and one of the reasons she’d decided not to go to the Hale party. Addie said she was kind of disappointed that she hadn’t gone to the party if they weren’t going to be there, but she was also kind of glad she hadn’t in the end, because punching that stupid boy in the face after all of the years he’d bullied her had felt really satisfying. Those boys didn’t pick on her ever again._

_Later, Stiles heard that Laura Hale had heard about what Addie had done and had been super proud of her, even if she was disappointed she hadn’t gotten to see it. Apparently they were in the same martial arts class that Addie went to on Saturdays and she’d become fond of Addie when Addie had kicked her in the face. Stiles thought that Laura Hale was super weird for liking being kicked in the face, but the way Addie’s face lit up when she talked about her kind of made up for it._

_And later, Stiles and a recuperated Scott would sit down with Addie on the porch, sipping apple cider and digging through their candy for trades. Stiles would trade Addie his KitKats for her Almond Joys, and Scott would trade Addie his caramel apple pops for her Mounds. She laughed and said they were **very weird kids** , but the way she said it made them proud to be very weird, because she liked them that way._


End file.
